BEING a production venture of Warner Bros and Ocher Studios, Venkat Prabhu's third direction venture, Goa, is still scouting alike for heroines and locations. The movie, said to be inspired by American Pie, has Vaibhav, Premgi, Siva and Jai in the lead, while a hunt is still on for the heroine's role.
The movie, in fact, has three heroines, and the director has been finalising the cast for it for sometime now. As the story involved a foreigner, the crew had approached Jessica Alba, who was popular in India too, thanks to Fantastic Four. But the actress, who reportedly was immensely pleased with the story, said she would charge not less than two million dollars (Rs nine crores). Even this amount was said to be a consideration, given that she charged 3.5 million dollars for Hollywood flicks.
Miffed at her remuneration, the hunt for another heroine to play the foreigner's role was on, and the crew was looking at popular TV actresses. And it is learnt that Amanda Siegfried, who played Sophie in the musical Mamma Mia, has been approached for the role. Negotiations are still on and an official announcement is expected soon.
As for the other two roles, Sneha and Genelia were both approached for the role. Though Sneha is said to have confirmed her participation, she is yet to sign the dotted line. And Genelia, who is currently doing a remake of Bommarilu in Hindi, has told the filmmakers that they have to wait until June if she could participate. The crew, thus, has decided to opt Genelia out of the cast and has plans of launching a new actress.
Goa is Venkat Prabhu's venture after 'Saroja' and Yuvan Shankar Raja will be scoring the music.
sharadha@epmltd.com